I’m at the end of another long day. It’s only about 8 o’clock at night. I’ve got the fireplace set to keep me warm and that’s working, sparking away.
I’m trying to think of what I did today. I know eating is one of the essential habits!
I figured out how to get pictures into my blog- that was a good thing and how to transfer the iPhone photos through Whatsapp to pictures on the laptop. I’m such a Mac user that some of these things are not automatic when I’m on a Lenovo ThinkPad. But I have to admit, I am more and more impressed by this little laptop.
I did some laundry & hung it outside. The temperature was only up to 17 again but it wasn’t feeling that warm and there was storm warnings currently somewhere down on the Algarve. Maybe this weather here was a reflection of that area.
After hanging the laundry out, I got ready to walk into town. I was getting hungry. I intended to eat at the Rita restaurant, not the café part but the actual restaurant. By the time I arrived it wasn’t open so I went and had a look at the waves coming in. My daily meditation!
Then I wandered back up through town. The tourist information building was open. I went in and had a chat and asked some questions. The woman who works there is called, Fatima Guerrero. She is so informative, such a hard worker; any question, if she doesn’t know the answer, she’ll look it up for you. While there, a young woman came in with an enormous backpack, huge on her body-she obviously was camping. We started a conversation and she’s from Toronto and she’s wild camping on the Rota Vincentina. Just amazing to talk to. Her back pack with camping gear is about 18 kg, she said, way too much for this young woman’s size. She reminded me of myself 10 or 12 years ago with her enthusiasm! She asked me to look at a sore on her back from the backpack rubbing against her bra. It was was just a large blister that had burst and I suggested she get compeed at the Farmacia. It is a an absolute necessity to help with blisters(usually on the feet!) when walking the Caminos in Spain.
This young Torontonian had just come from a pop-up restaurant that Fatima had recommended to me. It’s a restaurant in a motor home that is only there temporarily, and Fatima said the food is great. It’s on the other side of town and I wasn’t planning on going that far, however, why not just drag your feet along and get out there.
I had a lovely meal and the people are really nice. They’re only stopping there until the month is out and then they’re going to move somewhere else. What an interesting way to live.
After my meal I wandered back into town to the grocery store. I needed some laundry soap. And then home- here I am now , a couple hours later.
I have now worked out the rental of a car. I’m going up on Saturday to Lisbon. I just have to walk into town tomorrow to pick up my bus ticket. I had a helluva time trying to find out about insurance on this rental car, all these rental companies want to charge you a fortune, almost 2/3 of the rental for insurance. And they will pressure you! I was sure my credit card would insure if I used it to pay for the car. I called the number on the back of the credit card and on my debit card and my other CIBC credit card and none of the numbers would go through , so I tried online. You only talk to a bot online and they don’t answer your questions. Just refer to you to another source. It is totally frustrating. Finally I called my brother and talked to my friend Lynda who’s working there. I had her call CIBC to double check that my credit card would cover the excess insurance on a rental car. Yes it does That saves me about €400. Another breakthrough.
